Founded in 1994 to develop common protocols for the evolution of the World
Wide Web, the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is an international association
of industrial and service companies, research laboratories, educational
institutions, and organizations of all sizes. All of these organizations share
a compelling interest in the long term evolution and stability of the World
Wide Web (Web).

W3C is a non-profit organization funded partly by commercial members.
Its activities remain vendor neutral, however. W3C also receives the support
of governments who consider the Web the platform of choice for a global
information infrastructure.

W3C was originally established in collaboration with CERN, birthplace of
the Web, with support from DARPA and the European Commission.

W3C's mission is to lead the evolution of the Web -- the universe of information
accessible through networked computers.

W3C's long term goals are:

Superior Web Technology. By promoting interoperability and encouraging
an open forum for discussion, W3C commits to leading the technical evolution
of the Web. W3C must ensure that the Web remains a robust, scalable, and
adaptive infrastructure.

Universal Web Accessibility. W3C strives to make the Web accessible
to as many users as possible and to promote technologies that take into account
the vast differences in culture, education, ability, material resources,
and physical limitations of users on all continents.

Responsible Web Application. However vast the Web becomes, it remains
essentially a medium for human communication. As such, the Web's impact on
society cannot be dissociated from decisions that guide its development.
W3C must guide the Web's development with careful consideration for the novel
legal, commercial, and social issues raised by this technology.

Integral to the W3C process is the notion of consensus. The W3C
process requires those who are considering an issue to address all participants'
views and objections and strive to resolve them. Consensus is established
when substantial agreement has been reached by the participants. Substantial
agreement means more than a simple majority, but not necessarily
unanimity. While unanimity is preferred,
it is not practical to require that Working Groups, for example,
reach unanimity on all issues.
In some circumstances, consensus is achieved when the minority no longer
wishes to articulate its objections. When disagreement is strong, the opinions
of the minority are recorded in appropriate documents
alongside those of the majority.

Groups strive to reach consensus in order to provide a single solution acceptable
to the market at large. If a group makes a decision that causes the market
to fragment -- despite agreement by those participating in the decision --
the decision does not reflect a single market and therefore the group has
failed to reach true consensus.

All W3C technical reports and software are made available
free of charge to the general public (refer to the
W3C document notice [PUB18]).
This policy comes from the core goal of W3C to keep the Web as one and is
part of the Membership agreement.
Moreover, to ensure that its results are acceptable to the general public
and to promote trial implementations, W3C may call for
public comments about working drafts and software releases.

W3C promotes an open working environment. Whenever possible,
technical decisions should be made unencumbered by intellectual
property right (IPR) claims. To this end, W3C discloses to the entire
Membership all IPR claims made by Members. Members may disclose IPR
claims at any time. Members disclose patent and other IPR claims by
sending email to an archived mailing list that is readable by Members
and the Team: patent-issues@w3.org. Members
must disclose all IPR claims to this mailing list but
they may also copy other recipients. For instance, they should copy
the Activity Lead
responsible for a particular technology to ensure
that the IPR claims receive prompt consideration.

Advisory Committee representatives are responsible for facilitating
communication with IPR contacts in their organization. When disclosing
IPR claims, individuals should therefore copy their Advisory Committee
representative.

Member disclosures of IPR claims about a particular subject should
include the following language:

To the best of my knowledge, I believe my organization
has/doesn't have IPR claims regarding [subject].

Members are encouraged to disclose their claims in detail whenever
possible.

Announcements, important documents, and frequently visited Web
pages should remind Members to disclose IPR claims. Important places
of interaction include: Activity proposals and briefing packages,
calls for participation in groups and their charters, the Member
home page, Activity home pages, and Group home pages.

Invited experts are required to
disclose IPR claims in the same manner as individuals from Member
organizations.

There are three qualities an individual must possess
in order to join the W3C Team or participate in a
W3C Activity (e.g., act as a Chair, editor, etc.):

Technical competence in one's role

The ability to act fairly

Social competence in one's role

Advisory Committee representatives who nominate individuals for
participation in W3C Activities are responsible for assessing and
attesting to the qualities of participants from their organization.

Individuals participating in a W3C Activity (e.g., within a Working Group)
represent not only their own ideas but also the interests of the companies
or organizations with which they have relationships. As these companies and
organizations are often Members of W3C, all participants in a W3C Activity
should clearly disclose, as is customary, the financial interests and
affiliations they have with W3C Members. These disclosures should be kept
up-to-date as the individual's professional relationships and W3C Membership
evolve.

The ability of an individual to fulfill a role within a group without risking
a conflict of interests is clearly a function of the individual's affiliations.
When these affiliations change, the role in question must be reassigned,
possibly to the same individual, according to the process appropriate to
the role.

When an individual accepts a role as Chair or editor, the Member
organization that employs that individual recognizes that this work as
unbiased officer of the Group is done as part of the individual's work
for the Member.